Pre-Contact Kinematic Features for the Categorization of Contact Events as Intended or unintended

Contact events during manipulation tasks can be distinguished in two categories: intended and unintended. We investigated the categorization of contact events during an object placing task executed in virtual reality based on kinematic features measured during the movement segment previous to the contact. The experimental setup enabled us to generate unintended contacts by triggering unexpected interruptions of the placing movement. Experimental results indicate that the kinematic features enable the distinction of intended and unintended contacts independent of substantial variations of movement properties (amplitude, duration, velocity), unless the unintended contact occurs toward the end of the planned movement.